In Europe, the stock market opened up. In Frankfurt, the DAX index was up 0.3 percent and in London the FTSE 100 index was up 0.2 percent. In Stockholm, the OMXS 30 index was up 0.5 percent.

The STOXX 600 index, which tracks broad European shares, was up 0.4 percent.

Of the sectors, only energy and finance were in decline. The strongest rise was in real estate and health care companies.

The healthcare sector is being boosted by a British animal medicine company Dechra Pharmaceuticalswho said he was discussing the sale of the company to a Swedish private equity firm EQT:lle. The company’s share price is up almost 40 percent.

Swedish vegetable fat manufacturer AAK was up ten percent when the company issued a positive earnings warning. The company’s result improved thanks to favorable market conditions. The company had been able to compensate for the effects of inflation.

Stock markets were boosted by, among other things, economic data reported from the United States on the development of basic producer prices and new unemployment compensation applications.

In the United States, 239,000 new applications for unemployment benefits were filed last week, while the median of economists’ forecasts collected by the news agency Bloomberg expected 235,000 applications. In the week before last week, fewer applications were submitted, 228,000.

The Minister of Labor also published information on the development of producer prices. Producer prices rose by 2.7 percent in March, while the median forecast expected 3.0 percent. In February, prices rose by 4.9 percent.

Due to the good numbers, interest rate hikes by the central bank Fed may be over for the time being.

In Sweden, consumer prices rose by 10.6 percent year-on-year in March, while still in February the inflation rate was 12.0 percent. From February to March, consumer prices rose by 0.6 percent.